WILTON — Before leaving the Wilton Historical Society for the Peace Corps in September, Leslie Nolan had two people in mind for who should take her role as director. She looked to Allison Sanders, who had worked part-time at the historical society in marketing and grant writing since 2013, and Kim Mellin, an active volunteer and board member with 20 years of experience working at the New Canaan Historical Society.

“It was really sort of Leslie’s seed, a little bit, thinking that Allison and I would be a great team together,” Mellin said. “And she was right.”

“It made a lot of sense and we’re off and running,” Sanders added.

As co-directors, Mellin oversees the historical society’s education and programs while Sanders handles communications. The two lead a team of four others and have already planned ways to grow the organization’s membership and reach within and beyond the community.

The historical society will have a new permanent exhibition called “Connecticut’s History, Wilton’s Story,” which will be funded through a $125,000 Good to Great Grant from the Connecticut State of Economic and Community Development and a $32,000 match, Sanders said. The exhibition will detail serious tales of Wilton’s past as well as curious legends, such as the Old Leather Man, a tramp with a mysterious background who traveled to Wilton on a 34-day cycle wearing clothes he sewed himself and eating cakes left outside of homes.

“It will touch on all kinds of historic stories that tell Wilton’s evolution from a small rural village to the suburb it is today,” Sanders said. “Wilton doesn’t have anything like that.”

In June, the historical society will also host a second show for the first time. “Objects of Desire for the Garden and Home Show” will offer a selection of items to grace someone’s home as a conversation piece and to help people make their homes more of a story about themselves on how they acquired something and why, and what it means, Mellin said.

This second show and the new exhibition are in line with the pair’s vision for the upcoming year as co-directors and speaks to their commitment to the historical society’s mission.

The society’s long history of preserving buildings especially resonates with Sanders, who chairs the Historic Districts and Properties Commission.

“I live in an old barn and I grew up in Wilton and the landscape here and the buildings are so important to the character of the town. And the society has been instrumental in making that happen and keeping the town looking the way it does,” Sanders said.

For Mellin, the historical society offers what she calls “the best of all the museum world.”

“I never thought I’d be working at a historical society for so many years, but it has so much to offer,” said Mellin, who has a master’s in art history and museum education. “It has art, it has artifacts, it has books.”

Both Sanders and Mellin appreciate the weaving of history, research, education and preservation that takes place at the historical society. And their hope is to foster the same interest and passion among visitors and residents about the impact of Wilton’s history, from the 1955 flood to the widening and straightening of Route 7.

“People always want to know where they came from and why something is this way,” Sanders said.

“And even people who are new, they’re thinking, what’s unique about where I live?” Mellin added.

“And also, you learn from the past — if you bother to learn from it,” Sanders said. “It’s just fascinating, really, once you start getting a little interested in it. You begin to just find that there are so many nooks and crannies.”